There’s a story behind it … Source

This trail of consequences for Briere began on March 11, when he was caught on surveillance camera walking up to the entryway of a dance floor at Sullivan’s Pub in Erie with three other people before sitting down in an empty wheelchair. The footage shows Briere trying to maneuver around before he gets up and shoves the chair down the stairs. The wheelchair flips over and the seat cushion comes off during the descent.

Police say their actions posed a potential danger to anyone coming up the stairs, while also creating a hazardous condition by blocking the staircase.

The wheelchair’s owner, Sydney Benes, 22, filed a complaint after the incident, listing all the ways her chair had been damaged. Benes is a double amputee who lost her foot and leg in a fire after her car crashed in 2021. To be mobile, she said, she needs the chair while she learns to use her prosthetics.

Benes wrote in the complaint that the chair’s fall down the stairs damaged the left brake handle, broke the right armrest’s plastic moulding, bent a rear handle and caused the wheels to drag when moving forward. She added that the wheelchair was purchased a year ago for US$2,000.

Benes’ chair was left alone in the stairwell that night because she was using the restroom at the bottom of the stairs. Sullivan’s Pub was built before accessible design requirements were enacted, so her friend would "personally physically carry her down the stairs any time she has to use the restroom.”

Carson Briere previously was dismissed from Arizona State’s hockey club in 2019 for what the school called a violation of team rules, the Associated Press reported.